Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes and created by Lainey from Gingerreadlainey.
This week felt a bit tough at first: books the people either love or hate. I didn’t really think that there were all that many but I came up with 5 and I’ll let you know which side of the fence I stand on for each.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Love/Hate
I read it before the movies came out and I enjoyed it. I still enjoyed it even after the movies came out and made some people seriously question it (these are not masterpiece films here). I do realize that there are some issues within the novel, but that hasn’t gotten in the way of it being a fun book for me.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Love/Hate It
I tried to like this because it was so prevalent at the time, but I really could not stand this book. The writing was a drain on my will to keep reading and the story sounded great in theory, but in execution it didn’t pan out for me.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Love/Hate It
Without going into the rest of the series (because I’ve only read The Elite), I really liked The Selection. I know it’s kind of vapid, but it was a fun, light read that I didn’t have to think too hard about regarding world building or magic systems.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Love/Hate It
I didn’t think I would hate this book as much as I did, but oh my god did I HATE this book. No characters were sympathetic (Earl was the only one that came close) and the plot was devoid of any development.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne & J.K. Rowling
Love/Hate It
When this first came out I would have felt ashamed to put it on this list as anything other than love, but guess what? I am firmly on the side of HATE regarding this title. It did not live up to its history: the characters were nothing like what they’d been developed as, the story was on the rotten side of bad fan fiction, and there was no real reason for this to exist in the first place. I didn’t mind that it was a play because I enjoy that format, but this reeked of being a cash cow and that felt like a betrayal of all that the series stood for.
I AGREE! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was a HUGE flop! I totally thought I was going to love it and I was SUPER bummed that it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. I’m still glad we got something tho. Even if it wasn’t that good. The only good thing that came out of this was that Hermione was Minister of Magic.
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I wish there’d been more about that situation, though. Even though I’m glad Hermione became Minster for Magic, that seems like it should have been a much bigger deal that it was. She’s a Muggle-born, which to the Wizarding World would’ve been a huge thing. Most of the preceding Ministers were, if I remember correctly, Pure or Half blood.
I have to wonder if seeing it on stage improves it at all. There’s a lot of subtle stuff in the script that has so much context, subtext, etc., but does it play out through the actors? Plus, this was the rehearsel edition. What changed between that and the final version? I’m going to have to reread it when it comes out to see.
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